For some years New Zealand took part in matches with various Australian States for the Kirk-Windeyer Cup. This series was discontinued after 1934. New Zealand gained fourth place in the first world amateur team championship, which was held at St. Andrews, Edinburgh, in 1958. In 1961 New Zealand defeated Australia at Kingston Heath Golf Club, Melbourne, in an international match for the Sloan Morpeth trophy.

The New Zealand Professional Golfers' Association looks after the affairs of professionals, the majority of whom are engaged as full-time instructors. As yet there is no body of playing professionals who live on the prizes they win at tournaments. In this connection an outstanding event in the history of New Zealand golf occurred in July 1963 when the New Zealand born professional, R. J. Charles, succeeded in winning the British Open Golf Championship.

Each year the New Zealand Golf Association is responsible for conducting the annual championship meeting at which the open, amateur, and professional titles are decided. In addition to these it also organises the Freyberg Rose Bowl tournament (for inter-provincial teams), and the North and South Island amateur championships.

The New Zealand Golf Association has its headquarters in Wellington. Its membership comprises 15 district associations, each administering the game within its respective territory. These district associations are represented at all general meetings of the national body. Between annual general meetings of the association the game is administered by a council of 14, nine of whom are elected in their respective areas by the district associations concerned, the remaining five being elected at large by the general meeting. The council meets at least four times a year and between these meetings routine business is handled by a management committee (comprising six councillors) which meets every month.

The first golf course in New Zealand was established in Dunedin in 1870 and, from this beginning, the game has spread to all parts of the country. In 1893 the first amateur championship was contested. The New Zealand Golf Association, which is the governing body of the game, was formed in 1910 when it superseded the New Zealand Golf Council. The association is primarily concerned with the administration of men's amateur golf, whereas the Golf Council, formed in 1899, controlled both men's and women's clubs. Women's golf is now the concern of the New Zealand Ladies' Golf Union.

In 1903, when the first statistics of the game were compiled, there were 15 men's and 11 women's clubs affiliated to the council. By 1962 there were 321 men's clubs with a total playing membership of over 28,000.

(1870–1947).

Artist.

A new biography of Goldie, Charles Frederick appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

C. F. Goldie was one of a family of eight, and the second son of David Goldie, a well-known Auckland timber merchant, a former Mayor of Auckland and a member of the House of Representatives for West Auckland. On the maternal side, C. F. Goldie was a grandson of the English artist Partington. Born in Auckland early in 1870, Goldie was educated at Auckland College and Grammar School, where he early showed artistic talent, filling many sketch books with pencil drawings, mostly of flowers and plants. These sketches already showed an eye for detail which was later to become such a strong feature of his work. When he left college he went into his father's business, studying art in his spare time at L. J. Steele's studio. In 1892 Goldie's father realised that his son had no interest in business and accordingly sent him to Paris to study at L'Académie Julian in the Rue du Dragon under the instruction of Bouguereau, Ferrier, Constant, and Doucet. He also studied anatomy at the Beaux Arts under Professor Duval. At Julian's Goldie made a special study of the antique and painting from life, in which he displayed considerable skill. In 1896 he won the Prix Julian in competition with 300 other students. He also received numerous other mentions, particularly in the yearly portrait competition held at Julian's. During the five and a half years he was in Paris he made a considerable number of copies from the old masters at the Louvre and the Luxembourg galleries and, when on vacation, visited many other famous galleries in Belgium, Holland, Italy, and England, often accompanied by his brother, Dr William Goldie, who also painted.

Goldie returned to Auckland in 1898 and shortly afterwards he collaborated with L. J. Steele in painting “The Arrival of the Maoris in New Zealand” which was exhibited in 1899 and is now in the possession of Auckland Art Gallery. Goldie set up his studio on the top floor of Hobson's Buildings, then next door to the Auckland Star office in Shortland Street. For a time he found things financially difficult, but augmented his income from painting by taking pupils. In 1901 he made the first of many sketching trips to the Rotorua district and brought back a portfolio full of Maori studies. Realising that the old Maori type was fast dying out, he decided to devote his main life's work to painting Maori portraits, particularly those of tattooed subjects. By 1904 his Maori work had earned him a reputation as the leading painter in this field. In 1906 his work was being criticised for its lack of variety, but Goldie ignored such comments and persisted in what he felt was a task of historical importance. At first he did not find it easy to get suitable sitters, for the old-time Maoris were suspicious of his intentions, but fortunately Goldie had influential friends, and through them he was able to visit the Maoris in their pas. Many of his Maori sitters also came to his studio. He had a great admiration for the Maoris and understood them. Few of them had any idea of time; they would either turn up in the small hours of the morning, or be very late for an appointment. Not infrequently they fell asleep while posing, so that many of his portraits show his subjects reclining. Among his favourite subjects he numbered Pautea Atama Paparangi, chieftain of the Rarawa tribe, Tumai Tawhiti, warrior chieftain of the Arawa tribe, and Te Aho, at one time a famous Maori canoe architect. Among the women subjects he liked best were Pipi Haere Huka and Ina Te Papataki of the Ngapuhi tribe.

Goldie's life as artist falls into two periods — between 1905 and 1916, and between 1928 and 1940, for the long hours he worked, often from 6 a.m. until dusk, and the exacting nature of his task, resulted in a nervous breakdown. He did very little painting between 1916 and 1928, while recuperating in Australia, but in his late fifties he was at work again. In 1920 he married Miss Olive Cooper, of Melbourne; there were no children. In 1935 he was awarded the O.B.E. Lord Bledisloe did much to encourage Goldie and at his suggestion three pictures were sent to the Royal Academy, London, in 1935; namely, “Atama Paparangi”, “Thoughts of a Tohunga”, and “Sleep 'Tis A Gentle Thing”. The same year Goldie sent paintings to the Paris Salon where he won the Prix Julian Medal. In 1937, by special invitation from the Sociét des Artists Franais, he sent two other portraits of tattooed chiefs, “Wharekauri Tahuna of Galatea”, and “Atama Paparangi of Hokianga”, which were accepted by the Paris Salon.

A shy and reserved man by nature, Goldie was in failing health from 1940 and on 12 July 1947 he died at his home in Upland Road, Remuera, Auckland, survived by his widow.

Goldie's paintings were widely sold, many being bought by tourists through his Auckland agent, John Leech. His works are in the possession of most of the art galleries of New Zealand, particularly Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, Timaru, and Dunedin, and in the Auckland Museum, while he is represented also in many private collections in this country.

Goldie took all possible pains with his work. He made pencil sketches, took colour notes, and sometimes photographed his model from different angles before painting the finished picture in oils, his usual medium. He noted most carefully the light and shade, the colour and texture of the skin and the depth as well as the pigmentation of the tattooing on his subjects, recording most accurately each texture. He is particularly noted for the remarkable fidelity with which he painted hair and hands. His preoccupation with detail invites close inspection and yet does not disturb the sense of unity in the painting. While he left no notebooks describing his methods of preparation, a prepared canvas reveals that he first painted the canvas with Chinese white, leaving it for four years, then sandpapering the surface smooth before scumbling with a base of raw umber. He painted faithfully what he saw with a technical skill of a high order, and while he painted several portraits of prominent Auckland citizens and some religious compositions, the real importance of his work lies in his Maori studies, for they form an artistic and historic record of great value.

by Thomas Esplin, D.A.(EDIN.), Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Home Science, University of Otago.

(Although not highly rated by art critics, Goldie's Maori portraits have brought very high prices in recent years. In 1951, at an auction at Timaru, the Dunedin Art Gallery paid 800 guineas for ‘Memories’, a portrait of an old wahine. This figure was surpassed in September 1963 at an Auckland auction when ‘Te Aho Te Rangi Wharepu’ (29 in. × 24 in.) fetched 925. Ed.)

• The New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Nov 1901
• New Zealand Herald, 12 Jul 1947 (Obit).

The name Golden Bay is applied to the circular indentation in the coast of the South Island between Separation Point and Farewell Spit. The bay was discovered by Tasman in 1642, who, after losing four of his men in a battle with the local Maoris, left it with the name of Murderers' Bay. In 1770 Cook included it as part of Blind Bay, but in his second voyage of 1773 correctly located it as the scene of the 1642 massacre and referred to it as Murderers' Bay. D'Urville in 1827 appears to have changed this to Massacre Bay, by which name it was known until the early days of European settlement. Following the discovery of coal at Takaka in 1842 it was known for a time as Coal Bay. The name Golden Bay became established following the discovery of the Collingwood Goldfields in 1857.

Golden Bay is extremely shallow — less than 20 fathoms — and was probably formed by normal marine erosion of the soft Tertiary sediments which appear to underlie it. On its northern side it is slowly being infilled by drifting sand and mud transported around Farewell Spit by coastal drift from the west coast. The bay was formerly extensively used by coastal shipping from wharves at Waitapu (Takaka), Onekaka, Parapara, Collingwood, Pakawau, and Puponga. Despite the shallow water in the bay, all these ports could be worked comfortably at high tide, due to the 12-ft rise of the tides. At present, however, only Puponga, Collingwood, and a new wharf at Tarakohe Cement Works are the ports used. These are chiefly for the shipment of coal (Puponga), local produce and timber (Collingwood), and cement (Tarakohe). Because of the protection afforded by Farewell Spit, Golden Bay affords safe anchorage to shipping in all but north-easterly weather.

by George William Grindley, M.SC., New Zealand Geological Survey, Lower Hutt.

A different story altogether is that of the sunken gold of the 13,415-ton trans-Pacific liner Niagara which sank in 70 fathoms of water on the morning of 19 June 1940 after striking a German mine. She carried gold bullion to the value of considerably more than £2,500,000. The ship's entire complement of 349 – 146 passengers and 203 of a crew — were taken off and reached Auckland safely before the day was out. But the contents of the Niagara's strongroom, 590 gold ingots worth £4,300 each, lay more than 400 ft beneath the waves. The gold was a shipment destined for America and owned by the Bank of England. Notwithstanding the exigencies of war, the Bank had salvage operations in hand within six months.

A Melbourne salvage company, United Salvage Proprietary Ltd., contracted to recover the gold and commenced operations from Whangarei on 15 December 1940 in the Claymore, an old ship of 260 tons purchased for the purpose. On 2 February 1941 the wreck of the Niagara was located in 438 ft of water, the greatest depth at which salvage operations had ever been carried out up to that time. It was a long and hazardous task. Weather conditions were frequently impossible, and there was a constant menace from mines, which on two occasions all but compassed the destruction of the Claymore and her crew of 18. After nine months of blasting and cutting away the structure of the wreck to gain access to the strongroom, the first two ingots, £8,600 worth, were recovered. Two days later the Claymore sailed into Whangarei Harbour with £84,600 worth of bullion in her hold. When operations finally ceased, on 8 December 1941, no fewer than 555 ingots, valued at £2,379,000, or 94 per cent of the total shipment, had been salvaged. It was estimated that £284,000 worth of gold still remained in the ship. The operations were directed by Captain J. P. Williams, managing director of the salvage company, and Captain J. W. Herd, representing the London Salvage Association. Practically the whole of the underwater work fell to J. and W. Johnstone, two brothers from Australia celebrated for their diving achievements.

Considering the depth at which the remaining Niagara gold lay hidden, and the fact that inaccessibility alone prevented the Claymore expedition from recovering the full complement of bullion, it might have been expected that the chronicle of Niagara gold would have ended with the weighing of the Claymore's anchor. But gold is gold wherever it may lie hidden, and in the latter years of the forties calculating eyes were cast at the waters covering the sunken liner. In 1947, in 1949, and again in the early 1950s further thought was given to the quarter of a million pounds' worth of gold still to be salvaged; but it was not until April 1953 that the diver brothers, J. and W. Johnstone, could find the backing to carry out their intentions. One of the factors leading to the eventual resumption of salvage operations was a rise in the price of gold which increased the market value of each ingot from £4,300 to nearly 6,000. The divers returned to Whangarei Harbour in April 1953 on the salvage craft Foremost 17, with a personnel of 15, and after about five weeks' work, nine of the 35 bars of gold still beneath the sea were brought into port. When in July of the same year the salvors decided to abandon operations, there were only five bars left on the sea floor. Thirty bars, valued at approximately £180,000, had been recovered. As for the rest, the divers considered further efforts impracticable.

by Ronald Jones, Journalist and Script Writer, New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, Wellington.

More than anything else, it is the gold in her hold that reminds men today of the ill-fated General Grant, which was wrecked nearly 100 years ago in the Auckland Group of sub-Antarctic islands deep down in the southern latitudes nearly 300 miles from Bluff. The bullion lies there still in spite of all efforts at salvage. The General Grant was a full-rigged ship of 1,103 tons, London bound from Melbourne in May 1866, when she crashed into the towering cliffs on the west coast of the main island of the group. Her manifest included wool, skins, pelts, and spelter, but it was the gold bullion in her cargo which persuaded shippers to insure it for £165,000. And the passenger list included many successful miners returning to England with their private hoards. When the ship struck in the pitch darkness of the early morning of 14 May, the suddenness of the disaster caught everyone unawares and for some time no coherent or intelligible orders were given. The result was that the ship drifted astern and was blown into a cave 250 yards deep, the roof of which forced the masts through the hull. Two boats got away early to explore the position, and with the dawn an attempt was made to get the passengers and crew ashore. But by this time the vessel was doomed and after one longboat was got away, with about 40 persons on board, the General Grant sank. Even the 40 in the longboat were not destined to reach the rocky coast. The craft capsized in the breakers and the unfortunate passengers were caught in the backwash from the rocks and drowned.

There were 83 persons on board the General Grant when she struck, but only 15 survivors (10 members of the crew and five passengers) could be counted when on the following day two boats left the scene for nearby Disappointment Island. Captain W. H. Loughlin had gone down with the ship, which by this time had settled on the bottom inside the cave. Cold, wet, and hungry, the survivors, 14 men and one woman, after two days' privations and a capsize which cost them invaluable stores, found a rough haven at a spot known to the sealers of the Southern Ocean as Sarah's Bosom. The prospect before them was bleak in the extreme. They faced life on an inhospitable, uninhabited island with resources that were almost nil, and only the faintest possibility of being picked up by a passing or sheltering whaler or sealing ship. The marooned community found a single match between the lot of them, and with this a fire was kindled which for 18 months was never allowed to go out. Seals were plentiful and a menu of sorts was assured, supplemented with sea-fowl eggs. Later, goats and kids were ensnared with difficulty. Gradually a substandard of living was achieved, with sealskins providing the grave deficiencies of wardrobe among the company whose possessions comprised only what they stood up in. The winter passed slowly and painfully and little improvement came either with spring or summer. A model ship with an appeal for help engraved on its deck was set adrift but with small hope that it would reach anywhere. Actually it was picked up at Stewart Island months later, but by then the castaways had been rescued by a Bluff whaler. After nine months, in sheer desperation, the chief officer of the General Grant and three of the crew decided to attempt to reach New Zealand in a 22 ft pinnace with a beam of 5 ft 4 in. On the morning of 22 January 1867 this gallant quartet set out on their 290-mile voyage to Bluff across one of the cruellest oceans in the world without compass, chart, or nautical instrument of any kind. They were never seen again. In September one of those left behind died of sickness, leaving 10 to wait for help. The following month a sail was sighted, but in spite of frantic efforts by everyone on the island, it continued relentlessly on its way and disappeared over the eastern horizon. That was on 19 October. Exactly one month later another ship was sighted on 19 November, but though a boat was launched and fires were lit, it too, went on its way. Then two days later a vessel was seen heading for the island. It was the whaling brig Amherst from Bluff. The long ordeal was over and 10 skin-clad figures were taken aboard after an 18 months' desperate struggle for survival.

With the rescue of the survivors of the General Grant, it might have been thought the chronicle of the disaster was closed. But the lure of gold was too strong. The tug Southland from Bluff made an unsuccessful attempt to reach the wreck in 1869. The enterprise was a dismal failure. Then in 1870 the 48-ton schooner, Daphne, sailed from Bluff under Captain Wallace, but the expedition ended disastrously with the loss of six men who were drowned when their boat was swamped while attempting to reach the General Grant's cave. The irony of this catastrophe lay in the fact that one of the seamen drowned was David Ashworth, who three years earlier had been rescued with the rest of the survivors of the original wreck. In 1907 the ship Dundonald took up the quest but disaster again occurred; the vessel ran into the cliffs of the western shore of Disappointment Island and 12 men were drowned. Another 16 managed to get ashore, but it was seven months before they were taken off by the Government steamer Hinemoa. In all there have been nine attempts to recover the gold. In 1960 another enterprise was planned with the hope of salvaging the General Grant's gold, but this time the Marine authorities stepped in and placed a ban on any further attempts on the grounds that such expeditions were too perilous and hopeless to be practicable. The gold has already cost 91 lives and now looks like lying undisturbed in its sea-washed cave for all time.

After the alluvial deposits were exhausted the large companies continued to recover gold by the mercury-amalgamation process. By 1890, however, many people feared for the industry's future. In 1889 the cyanide process was successfully tested in New Zealand and, before long, there was a revival of activity on the Thames and Ohinemuri fields. The new process also enabled the Waihi Co. to develop the low-grade gold and silver ores near Waihi and begin a “boom” period which lasted well into the present century.

In Otago and the West Coast, sluicing became the normal method of recovering gold. By 1890, when returns were again declining, dredging became the principal mode of production. In 1886 the Dunedin, the first steam bucket dredge, was built, and during the next decade, as technical difficulties were overcome, many dredges appeared on Otago rivers. The dredging boom lasted from 1898 to about 1913. In 1903, the peak year, there were 201 dredges working in Otago-Southland, the majority on the Clutha and its tributary, the Kawarau. There were also a further 63 on the West Coast. Today the Kaniere dredge, which works the river near Kumara, is the sole survivor of this era.

Between 1857 and 1960 over 27 million ounces of gold were exported from New Zealand. This has been valued at nearly £125 million.

by Bernard John Foster, M.A., Research Officer, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.

• A History of Goldmining in New Zealand, Salmon, J. H. M. (1963)
• Heart of the Desert, Parcell, J. C. (1951)
• History of Otago, McLintock, A. H. (1949)
• Charleston — its Rise and Decline, Faris, I. (1941)
• The West Coast Gold Rushes, May, P. R. (1962)
• The Prerogative Right of the Crown to Royal Metals, Parcell, J. C. (1960)
• Kawarau Gold, Sinclair, R. S. M. (1962).